Mom! What’s For Dinner??

Moms I hate that question! Why in the world does everyone in the family look to me the mom to decide? It is so annoying.

But BOAW is all about helping a mom out, so today I’m going to give you guys some help. Years ago, I asked my husband, Greg, to come up with a list of meals he likes, and from that list he or the children decide on meals for the week. Here’s what he came up with:

You are welcome to print off and use our list or just use this idea to create your own list of meals your family will eat. If you can come up with 5-10 meal ideas and put them on a rotation throughout your month (remembering that some nights each week you’ll might eat out, pick up a pizza or have leftovers) then you really can make dinner all year long! I know I would rather serve the same thing several times a month than doing the alternative – which is stress out trying to make something new or fancy that no one ends up eating. Don’t over-think this moms! You don’t need to create Pinterest-worthy entrees every night, no one has time for that.

Now that you have a few ideas, my advice is to get prepared. Make a list of the ingredients you need and head to the grocery store for a weeks’ worth of dinner supplies. Use this free printable to help keep you organized. Don’t forget to grab staples for breakfast, lunch and snacks while you’re there! (Geez this mom thing is a lot of work…) If your kids are at the stage where they are picky eaters, just try to have ONE THING on their plate they will probably eat. You do not need to be making two separate dinners, that is too much work for you mom and I promise you, your kids will not starve themselves.

Now you are all set! You just have to make the meals. 🙂 When my kids were young I would save some screen time for when I knew I was going to prepare dinner so they were entertained and not under my feet. If you have younger kids and are home during the day, you could try to prepare dinner during nap time or at least get some of the prep work done before the “witching hour”. I know when I worked and had young kids at home I tried to use the weekend to do all my meal planning and prep work – when I remembered! 😉

Hope this helps moms – and if you have any tricks or tips to get dinner on the table every night, share them in the comments! We can all use a little help in this area.

7 Comments

Stacy Harmon
on January 23, 2018 at 4:26 pm

Great ideas! I started a meal calendar years ago and it has upgraded my life. Like you, I too hate the “What’s for dinner?” question. My calendar gives me a reminder at 6pm daily so that I can make sure anything that is frozen is taken out to thaw in time. I also add in leftover days and open days for new recipes or eating out. Moms, please try the suggestions from this post. It REALLY helps.

Love this post! I used to dread the whole process of meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking dinners – but mostly loathed grocery shopping. I mentioned this to my husband, and we now go as a family every Sunday after church – he takes half the list and a kid and I take the other half and kid. We finish in half the time and it’s become kinda fun. (Put a LOT of emphasis on kinda.)

Thank you for this post! I love to cook, but I cannot stand going to the grocery store and planning meals that my picky kids won’t even eat (any tips for picky eaters?)!
What I have found that helps me is writing my grocery list on my iPhone notes. Throughout the week I add meal ideas and food items (in the order of the grocery store aisles) we need or run out of. This way my Friday or Saturday night is not consumed with meal planning and writing a grocery list. 🙄